Turkish troops have reportedly killed a teenager and injured dozens of protesters after firing into Syrian Kurdistan. The people gathered were demonstrating against the building of a border wall on their land.

By James M. Dorsey The Syrian civil war and Iraqi sectarian conflicts involving “Islamic State” (IS) have had far-reaching consequences for the demographics across the region. Once a relatively ethnically homogeneous autonomous region, Iraqi Kurdistan has seen its demography change radically as large numbers of Arab refugees pour into what was once an independent …

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Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has, in turn, accused the PKK of breaking its promises, saying that barely 20% of its fighters had left Turkish soil for bases in Iraqi Kurdistan and most were women, children and the elderly.

By James M. Dorsey A decision by European football body UEFA granting Gibraltar the right of membership potentially opens the door to Kurdistan to seek association with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in a move that would acknowledge demands for increased autonomy and the possible shifting of national borders in the Middle East as a …